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Feds notch another win in battle against Dorchester property scammers

A federal jury last week convicted Sirewl Cox, a Canton real-estate broker, of fraudulently converting Dorchester and Mattapan apartments into condos using straw buyers in 2006 and 2007 the US Attorney's office in Boston reports.

According to the indictment against the pair, they recruited bogus buyers for apartment buildings, then converted them into condos and then sold the units to still more straw purchasers, all the while collecting fees from lenders. The specific buildings: 11 Roxton St., 148 Stanwood St. and 111 Fuller St. in Dorchester and 153 River St. in Mattapan.

Over the past three years, federal authorities have won a number of convictions or obtained guilty pleas in cases against real-estate brokers, lawyers and others who tried to make money off the neighborhood's foreclosure-filled property market.

OK, this is going to bug me: How do you pronounce that first name? Is it like "Cyril?" I'm genuinely stumped here and I really would like to know. I don't know that I'll meet another Sirewl in my lifetime but if I do I'd rather not cock up his name.

He and his pal prepared fraudulent financial documents for their bogus buyers, who had no intention of actually paying off their mortgages. Based on the bogus financial statements, the banks issued mortgages and the brokers got fees for arranging the loans.

It seemed fairly common during the condo boom in the early 2000s that people would convert a three-decker and temporarily sell one or two of the units to a friend or relative for a dollar or whatever so the actual buyers of the other unit(s) wouldn't be the first sale, thus could get financing (apparently a lot of mortgage lenders consider the first unit in a new condo conversion to be a risky investment, won't lend to someone whose HOA isn't fully filled, etc.) This didn't involve the other units getting mortgages or anything though, and they then re-sold them. Our three-decker has history of this happening, as do many of the homes of our friends.

If the straw buyers pay cash for their units, is the scenario I described illegal? The lender for the no-longer-the-first-sale can look up public records and easily see that the unit was sold for a dollar rather than anywhere near market value.

Even in a cash transaction, you would still have to file documents with the registry of deeds. I suppose the commonwealth would have a claim for willfully filing fraudulent documents with a state agency. Perpetrating a fraud, etc.

Yeah, it could be hard to prove intent though, right? I mean, it's a pretty common thing to sell a car or a house for a dollar to a friend or a relative. Would they just start going through the Registry of Deeds and going after all the people who've sold houses for a dollar?

eeka, did you read the attachment? this isn't selling a house to your grandma for a buck. He got millions in loans by lying about who was buying it, where they worked, their salary, who was going to live there, etc. looks like he got the loan $, then just let it go into foreclosure. I am sure if you read the indictment you will see he isn't some naive guy who didn't know any better. the evidence is overwhelming. Mr. Allah was smart enough to plead. I wonder what sentence he received? I don't know how Cox was thinking he could get away with this one.

a simple google search gives us some other news of this man, in the first article, I love the fact he was still trying to commit fraud while wearing an ankle bracelet.:

First, I would like to ask the idiot about questioning someones name. What the hell do you care. As for anonymous.....please don't believe everything the media writes because they are going on assumptions. They were not at the trial so how can they say who was responsible for what...just because someone pleads guilty does not mean they are guilty! They might not have a choice.....don't be ignorant and believe everything you read.

Agreed on the juvenile name calling. Are you able to tell why Lord Allah was involved in this scam?/had "no choice". It certainly appears that Cox was the main one behind the whole scam. Was Lord Allah just along for the ride thinking he could make a few bucks, or what? The indictment attachment is pretty damning.

It's VERY easy to obtain transcripts of this or any other trial. You don't have to physically be there. Go to pacer.gov. And yes, when you plead guilty to something, people will assume you are guilty. Welcome to the real world. Actually looks like Lord Allah was a lot smarter than Sirewl Cox in this mess. Greed always gets you. Cox can't help himself. He was out in Sudbury going into mailboxes while wearing an ankle bracelet? Gee, wonder what he was up to? I wonder how long Cox got seeing he got convicted on 8 counts. Probably got 5 -7 or so. Hope it was worth it.